Abstract: This article examines how a Muslim society like Egypt represents queers—i.e. gays and lesbians—in their movies and how that representation is not symmetrical and still paradoxical. The movies examined here are the famous 1973 Hammam Al-malality (the Malality Bathroom), the 1977 Qitta ala Naar (A Rush Cat), the 2006 Immart Yaccoubian (Jacobean Building), and the 2009 Bedoun Riqabaa (without censorship). Queers presented in these movies are sometimes given a tragic end, which is usually suicide or murder, and sometimes are excused but yet not straightforwardly. On the other hand, the Islamic ruling against such acts of gayness and lesbianism is presented clearly so that it could, in a way or another, give an explanation of why such paradoxical movie representation exists.
Keywords: gayness, lesbianism, queers, Egyptian movies, Islamic ruling.
Title: Paradoxical Representation of Queers in the Egyptian Movies versus the Islamic Ruling
Author: Mohamed A. Yacoub
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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